NYC nurses answer Utah’s call for help in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic
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MURRAY, Utah (ABC4 News) — Utah’s continued rise in COVID-19 cases has resulted in hospitalizations and death increases. Amid the ever-changing pandemic, Intermountain Medical Center is welcoming nurses from NYC to help frontline caregivers.
As part of an extensive surge plan that Intermountain developed more than eight months ago, 31 nurses from New York-Presbyterian have arrived and are now working in Intermountain’s ICUs, emergency departments, and medical/surgical units.
Intermountain Medical Center is one of the major regional hospitals that admits very severe COVID-19 patients from eastern Idaho.
Last April, Intermountain deployed two COVID-19 response teams totaling 100 caregivers to assist New York City-area hospitals during that state’s major surge of COVID-19 cases.
New York-Presbyterian is now returning the favor and answering Utah’s call for help.
Intermountain officials say they are also hiring nearly 200 traveling nurses, adding ICU and medical/surgical beds, and allocating resources to optimize facilities and staffing as part of that long-standing surge plan.
On Wednesday, Nov 11, the Utah Department of Health reported a daily total of 2,335 additional cases of COVID-19 and six more deaths.
Utah’s total positive cases of the virus are now 139,720 since the beginning of the pandemic. The state’s death toll due to the virus is 678.
There are 446 positive COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized. Total hospitalizations from the beginning of the outbreak are 6,395.